There is a need for a more effective and financially viable manner of removing hydrocarbons from soils. The need manifests itself in environmental cleanup of hydrocarbon contaminated lands, such as those lands surrounding oil wells and gas storage tanks. Often the cost of environmental cleanup exceeds the commercial value of the land. It is not unusual for the environmental cleanup to largely consist of removal of contaminated soils to landfill sites. The need also manifests itself in commercial recovery of hydrocarbons, such as the recovery of recovery from oil sands.
The present invention relates to removing hydrocarbons from soils using solids-loaded polymer foam. Solids-loaded polymer foam is known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,483 (Smith et al 1986) entitled “Concrete Cleaning Composition” describes the use of solids-loaded polyurethane foam to clean concrete. Abrasive solids are dispersed and bound throughout the polyurethane foam matrix. The choice of abrasive material is made from a wide variety of materials of adequate hardness and of a particulate size range which will enable them to effectively scour concrete, brick or stone surfaces and to loosen dirt or other debris held thereto by oil. The Smith et al reference uses a silane-coupling agent to bond the abrasive particles to the foam matrix. For this reason, the Smith et al reference teaches that the abrasive particles are preferably chosen from substances which are capable of forming reactive sites for the silane-coupling agents.